I decided to de-clutter my mind and soul.

I’ve been doing a lot of cleaning up lately. It’s been strangely exhilarating, a buzz that I certainly wasn’t anticipating.

The spiders sitting in their expansive cobwebs in the corner of my house weren’t expecting it either, judging by their cocooned collection of bugs, they were expecting to make it through the coming winter quite nicely. Not now, no sir, they have made a dash for the great outdoors to rethink their residency. And they’re not the only things that have been “shoo-ed” from my house.

Next to go – things that don’t match. And clearly, the only place to start in such a situation is the Tupperware drawer. Well I was amazed at how many odds and ends of things I had, how long I had been trying to operate in an environment that clearly was set against me. I didn’t have enough lids for containers!

Right, action taken, things that didn’t function were tossed and within an hour (okay, a few!) I had the drawer sorted and all that remained were clean, colour co-ordinated, complete sets. Victory! But it didn’t stop there. Ohhh no.

I threw out the tops that didn’t quite fit, the pants with the missing button I was never going to purchase, the favourite Ugg boot whose partner I was still hoping would turn up one day and the leaking toothpaste. I cleared the study of pointless files, old magazines and dried out pens. Then I tackled the bigger messes – like my accounts (shudder). Receipts were filed, accounts brought up to date, budgets were written, I even got my tax return organised! Boy, this was feeling GOOD!  

It was feeling so good to de-clutter, so amazing that things were organised, so fantastic to be in control (well of my cupboards anyway), that I went that extra step further. I decided to de-clutter my mind and soul.

Wow, now that is something else. This takes a little more than just throwing away things that don’t fit. But feeling empowered by the impact of my house being in order, I sat and looked deep inside to try to make some order of my goals, my mindset, to try to take stock of what I wanted and to work out where I wanted to spend my time, my energy.

And I realised I had been spending a lot of energy on things that weren’t right for me, things I didn’t want or need in my “house”. And I realised that I felt under just as much pressure from people’s expectations and what they needed from me, as when you’re (very) overdue with your tax return, you feel slightly anxious under the cloud of burden. The difference is, we all need to pay our taxes, but we shouldn’t be “taxed” by the people we choose to have in our lives.

So I am cleaning my heart and soul from those who are creating an unnecessary burden on me – those who are taking more than they are giving, those who are just too needy – those who are taxing me. And it feels so nice to realise the things that weigh you down and then release them. There’s enough things in life (like paying taxes, and meeting your own responsibilities) that we stand up and soldier on with. But in your own house and

in your soul, it’s good to clean up every now and then!

To look inside is to grow and, just like spring cleaning, it’s all very well and good to get in there and vacuum – the trick is keeping it the way you want it so it doesn’t weigh you down!

Have a great month,
Abby x

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